S146P4 – Moments of clarity: the herdsmen
Lk. 8:34-37
When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country. Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. And those who had seen it told them how the demon-possessed man had been healed. Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned.
Even when I did not want to admit it, I had always been on the search for God. I knew there was something or someone greater than myself out there, and I wanted to know the truth about him. It is a search that I expect we all undertake at one time or another. For me, I saw this search as one that would end positively if I happened to learn the truth. I just expected that finding the answer would bring me peace and relief. Without knowing that the truth would bring freedom, I certainly expected to feel more free once I found it, if it existed. It never occurred to me that learning who and what God is what would be negative in any way. I certainly did not expect that He would frighten me.
The miracle that Jesus performed by delivering this man from demon possession should have made everyone who knew him incredibly happy and amazed in a good way. At least, I think that is what most of us would expect. How strange it is to think that such a great move of God would be seen as anything but positive. Here, however, those who saw the fruit of the Lord’s work were brought to fear. They were in such terror that they asked the healed man to go away from them, which sounds absurd to those who long to see God move. Imagine experiencing or witnessing the fruit of God’s work and being repelled from him instead of being drawn to him.
We have spoken of people who come to a realization of who Christ is but simply reject him. Some will take this stance because they do not respect him or agree with his precepts and commands. They do not want to obey him, so they cannot love him. Others will run out of sheer fear like we see here. They do not understand him, and they do not want to understand him, because going there would mean facing truths which frighten them. They prefer to be ostriches with their heads in the sand, to run from truths that are difficult to swallow instead of letting the truth cure the fear. Father, calm the hearts of those who are afraid to face the truth so that even they would be brought to repentance.